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Pickup trucks are big business, and truck makers love to come up with special models. Typically, that’s something meant for the dirt. But Ford is also focusing on a trend called street trucks – the opposite if you will.
The company earlier added a variant of their popular compact, the Maverick, called Lobo. The vibe of the custom mini trucks of decades ago, with a lowered suspension and special wheels.
Now meet the second Ford street truck model: the F-150 Lobo. Pavement purpose in a bigger size. Custom flair for a city vibe rather than a wilderness one, with a lowered suspension and 22″ wheels. The Lobo model is based on the F-150 STX and has a base price of $59,995.
And who better to help debut the new Lobo last year in Los Angeles than the truck enthusiast club, Bullz. They got to see the new model before anyone else. Members assembled their own custom F-Series pickups near downtown L.A. and got an up-close look at this special factory custom.
Many approved of part of the F-150 Lobo persona: eight cylinders under the hood. While Ford’s EcoBoost V6s can make plenty of power, there’s nothing quite like that V8 rumble, especially in a street truck. The 5.0 in the Lobo produces 400 horsepower and makes a nice rumble from the chrome dual exhaust tips under the tailgate.
For a bit of history, Ford actually had a rumbling V8 sport truck way back in the early ’90s called the Lightning. (Not to be confused with the all-electric Lightning from the 2020s.) Hot-rodded in-house by Ford’s Special Vehicle Team, the Lightning got a tweaked 5.8 liter V8 and a special suspension package.
And what do you know, it was a Ford versus Chevy battle at the time, with Chevrolet offering its own hot rod truck, the 454 SS. With their biggest V8 stuffed into the basic 1500 standard cab, that special Chevy pickup was the essence of hot rodding.
Today, the F-150 Lobo is the factory hot rod for a new era. Plenty of guts, without too much flash.
With trucks being such a large part of the automotive world, pickup makers are always looking to see what trends happen organically in the hands of their customers, and then they create special models based on those trends. Well, if one manufacturer of trucks is doing it, you know that the others are looking at it as well.
At last year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas, Ram brought back a name from the past for a concept street truck called The Dude. Its unveiling conveniently coinciding with the return of the Hemi V8 to the Ram 1500. While The Dude is officially labeled a concept, could a production version be heading for showrooms someday? You never know.
And you never know, Chevy likes to offer variety in its popular Silverado these days. Could a spiritual successor to that 454 SS be in the works? Someone at Chevrolet must be thinking along those lines, right?
In the meantime, Ford is leading the factory street truck charge. Impressing die-hard truck club enthusiasts was probably a pretty good start.
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